


Question Marks - Why Do We Need Them?

by kiirotsubasa



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-21
Updated: 2014-06-21
Packaged: 2018-02-05 15:54:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1823995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiirotsubasa/pseuds/kiirotsubasa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Ms Sarah Appleby defends her doctoral dissertation, we take a look at the education system that we are presented with in MMPR.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Question Marks - Why Do We Need Them?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheSecondBatgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSecondBatgirl/gifts).



> 1\. Written for TheSecondBatgirl as part of the Power Rangers Universe Building Exchange. I really hope you enjoy it and I want to thank you for the opportunity to explore the AGHS education model!
> 
> 2\. I am a teacher, but not in the US system. I have had it read by an American beta who says that the educational parts are plausible, but hopefully anything that doesn't conform with standard US experience can be written off as "Angel Grove High syndrome". I'm not a doctorate holder (though I hope to be!) and so the defense portions of the story are entirely fabricated. Hopefully any differences from the real experience can also be put down to "things are different in Angel Grove."
> 
> 3\. The "Philosophy for Teenagers" program presented here is fictional, but based on a similar styled program for elementary aged students. I'm not endorsing that program here, because I haven't taught it thoroughly enough to make a real judgement either way. 
> 
> 4\. I needed to give Ms Appleby a first name, and went with "Sarah" because I felt it suited her. I'm not sure if she has a commonly accepted fanon name (my search came up with nothing) and while I've become accustomed to "Sarah" I will willingly change it.
> 
> 5\. Italics denote flashbacks
> 
> 6\. Written for the original prompt "The educational system where Power Rangers are taking classes. Seriously, why was Billy learning about question marks? Do the teachers know who they are? Just... discuss." As a teacher, I couldn't resist!!

“Question marks, why do we need them?” Sarah Appleby trembled slightly as she stood in front of her thesis defence committee. Her opening line had worked as she’d expected, the knotted eyebrows betraying the committee’s confusion as they began to thumb through her proposal.

“Ms Appleby,” a bespectacled man spoke, not taking his eyes from the thesis. “I was lead to believe that your strength was in Psychology. We are not linguists and are not equipped to verify your judgements on such a topic.”

“You honesty is appreciated, Dr Baker,” Sarah smiled. “But if you would please turn to Appendix 1 of my thesis, you will see that this is the title of one of the lesson plans included in my sequence…”

*

_“I’m afraid I don’t follow, Sarah,” Mr Kaplan shook his head as he looked at her. “Why would you want to pursue a doctorate now?”_

_“This is something I believe in, Richard. I’m sure that I can prove that allowing students more freedom in how they produce assignments will increase Standardized Testing and the quality of the knowledge of our kids.”_

_“It seems to me that you want to use our students as guinea pigs for something that may or may not work.”_

_“It isn’t working now, Richard.” Her voice was soft yet determined. “Have you read the report from the School Board yet?”_

_“Of course I…”_

_“So you’ve seen that they’re increasing the Volunteer Work requirement again? We can’t possibly expect the in-school work requirement to remain the same when so much is being expected of our students outside of the classroom.” She began to count slowly to ten, reminding herself to keep her cool._

_“But what you’re proposing is…”_

_“Intrinsic motivation, Richard.” He sighed and slowly shook his head._

_“You realise that I will need to cut the Psychology course. We can’t afford to pay for someone to cover your class load while you take on general education.”_

_“I do, and that’s a shame. But it will only be for a couple years while I gather evidence for my thesis. Then we can disband the General Ed class and everything can go back to how it was.”_

*

“As you can see, each of the students in the class interpreted the question in a different way.”

“Exactly how much guidance were they given on the essay?” A young woman, Dr Smulders, looked intently at Sarah.

“They were asked to read a chapter of the same title from the _Philosophy for Teenagers_ textbook. The chapter is reproduced, in its entirety, as Appendix Two.” The rustling of papers as the members of the defence committee gave Sarah a moment to breathe. She knew what line of questioning was coming, and she prepared herself for it. “They were then asked to produce an answer to the question.”

Dr Smulders’ eyebrows raised.

“With no further guidance.”

“No.”

“You did not give them a page count?”

“No.” Years of teaching experience had forced Sarah to trust her instincts in her classroom, and on that occasion instinct had told her not to limit what the students were producing. But she knew that a Doctor of Education would have a better answer than that. “Professor Windsor at USC suggests that allowing students to have control of their own limitations encourages critical thought about performance.”

“Very interesting.” This caught Sarah by surprise. She had prepared note cards full of defence of her choice not to give the students page counts. She was about to launch into that monologue when she was interrupted. “Please explain to us how you took your sample,” Doctor Baker said, looking over the class list reproduced in Appendix Four. “The results we have here show a range of abilities from your students, but you appear to have limited the research to a very small class.”

“It was agreed by the ethics committee that only a small number of students would be taken out of the mainstream school program and be placed into my General Ed class,” Sarah explained. “I took a total of fifteen. Originally, my number was fourteen but you can see that I gained Student Oliver partway into the semester.”

“And your sample was…”

“Stratified. Of the 1,000 students in the school population, we knew that we wanted 15 students…”

*

_“No. I’m sorry, Sarah, but you can’t have Billy Cranston.” Ms Appleby sighed as she once again found herself in front of the Principal._

_“Richard, you said you’d support the thesis research that I had to do.”_

_“I know, but I refuse to jeopardise the learning potential of one of the brightest minds that Angel Grove High has ever known.” Sarah began to count her breaths, waiting for her mind to stop racing before she countered._

_“As we have discussed, the Philosophy for Teens technique will allow all students to reach their potential. From those who do not excel in academia to those who do.”_

_“Which is why I’ve agreed for you to have Bulkmeyer and Skullovitch in your class, alongside Trini Kwan and Jason Scott, who both score highly on Standardized Testing. However, Billy is a special case…”_

_“Which is exactly why he needs to be a part of my program.” She began to count again. She knew she needed a clear head if she were going to win this argument. “He isn’t being challenged by his current curriculum and I don’t believe that anything we offer right now has the capability to challenge him.”_

_“But your philosophy program does?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“Okay,” Richard said, rubbing his temples. “What has your ethics committee said about his case?”_

*

“Do you not consider Student Cranston’s results to be an anomaly?” Dr Smulders asked. “His Standardized Testing scores are very high and the answers that he has given to the essays are extraordinary.”

“With all due respect, Dr Smulders, that’s the point of the exercise. By allowing Student Cranston to write the report with full independence, he was able to stretch himself beyond the confines of classroom teaching. I would even go so far as to argue that in cases such as his, this method is more effective than classroom teaching as there may be certain subjects in which his existing knowledge matches or excels that of his teacher, meaning that his teacher is unable to act in a scaffolding capacity.”

“And what of students who require that scaffolding, Ms Appleby?” Up until now, the redheaded Dr Harris had listened intently. “Student Bulkmeyer, for example.”

*

_“Excuse me, Ms Appleby?” Sarah looked up from her desk to see a sheepish looking Bulk standing in her doorway._

_“Farkas. How can I help you?” Bulk shifted his weight between from one leg to the other, and then back again, before approaching the desk._

_“I…uh…I don’t understand this week’s assignment.”_

_“Oh really?” Sarah began to count again, hoping that the mental distraction would lessen her surprise and keep her voice steady._

_“Right. And I can’t fail this assignment or my dad’ll kill me.”_

_“Farkas, you know that…”_

_“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can’t fail this class. But my dad says that an F is a failing grade, and he’ll explode if I bring another one home. Please, you need to help me.”_

_“Does Mr Skullovitch know that you’re here?”_

_“Yeah. He kinda needs to pass this one too.” Despite herself, Sarah smiled._

_“Okay. Next week is Hobby Week and the assignment requires a verbal presentation of an activity that you do outside of school…”_

*

“Ah, yes, the Hobby Week assignment,” Dr Harris smiled. “A little simple, don’t you think?”

“All of the assignments are simple, Linda,” Dr Baker interjected. “That appears to be the point of the project.” Sarah smiled. It seemed as if she had Dr Baker on board.

“Precisely. As I outline in my introduction, the assignments posed are generally very simple. Again, the students interpret the questions themselves and differentiate for themselves accordingly.”

*

_Question marks – Why Do We Need Them? A socio-linguistic analysis of the role of punctuation in written English by William Cranston._

_Question marks – Why Do We Need Them? An investigation into the Buddha’s undeclared questions by Trini Kwan._

_Question marks – Why Do We Need Them? An interpretive dance by Zachary Taylor._

_Question Marks – Why Do We Need Them? Can punctuation poses be incorporated into a gymnastic routine? By Kimberly Hart._

_Question Marks – Why Do We Need Them? An Interview with Pan Global Karate medallist Mark Chen by Jason Scott._

_Question Marks – Why Do We Need Them? A consideration of classical musical notation from 1500 – Present by Eugene Skullovitch._

_Question Marks – Why Do We Need Them? Why questions help me learn By Farkas Bulkmeyer._

*

It was a bittersweet day that Dr Appleby’s General Ed class disbanded. The class was no longer what it had been, with many of her original students transferring out to pursue bigger and better things. It was her own doing, of course. The idea to enter the Peace Conference came as the result of an assignment that Trini had written. Kimberly’s decision to enter the Pan Global games came after she’d written on the legacy of Gunther Schmidt. It was because of her course, she knew, that her students had succeeded. And as the clean-cut freshmen that Angel Grove High seemed to attract filed into her Psychology lab, she couldn’t help but be disappointed that the school board had deemed her Philosophy for Teens program too expensive to run. And as those thoughts entered her head, she counted and she smiled and she turned to the chalkboard.

“Question marks. Why do we need them?”


End file.
